Idyllwild Visit

Drive to Idyllwild

On Saturday, the 23rd, I went climbing in the Idyllwild area and on the drive up and down Highway 243 I noticed that the wildflowers were better than normal, but drying up fast. Since my wife doesn't get to leave home much, her time is spent taking care of her invalid mother, I decided to take her for a drive to see what's left of the flowers. I might also add that she has been an amateur botanist for many years.

We drove to Banning and stopped to look at a single field of flowers, unlike any others I've seen in the area. They have very sharp pointed leaves, a gray green color with a pale purple flower.

We then drove up the hill and I was planning on turning around about half way to Idyllwild when my wife asked me to drive her on into Idyllwild. The flowers didn't impress her too much, too far gone and not the best of years to begin with. We drove into town where it was packed. We had to stop at her favorite shop, the one where they have hand dipped ice cream on a stick. I couldn't find a parking space, so I drove around while she got her ice cream.

Busy downtown Idyllwild

We then drove back down the way we came up. I figured that going down Highway 74 would have even heavier traffic than 243. On the way down I snapped a quick picture of some people at Bay Spring, filling up water bottles even though it is posted as closed and the water is not safe to drink. It makes you wonder.

Filling up contaminated water

We continued down a ways and overlooking Twin Pine Ranch we stopped to look at some showy yellow flowers growing on shrubs and to look out over the fire damage from the Esperanza Fire.

Looking out at the burn area

After taking in the view, we continued home. It may not of been a monumental trip, but it was important to me to give my wife a chance to get out of the house, even if for just a little drive.

Tahquitz from Humber Park

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of the summer. Being a three day weekend, it is also one of the most crowded. Here in California this is particularly true for anyplace to do with water or mountains. There seems to be a theme, escape the heat? Works for me, it's too hot to go out and play during the day here in the low desert and the high desert isn't much different. 

With three days instead of two, people hit the road and get out of town. So when Roy and I headed out for Idyllwild on Saturday morning, I expected to see full parking lots and to have to stand in line waiting for a climb. I was partially and pleasantly surprised. The parking lots were full as we drove up Hwy 243 and up to Humber park, but the Humber park wasn't too bad. I decided that since every other home in Idyllwild was having some sort of yard/garage sale, we lucked out and were able to park at the trailhead. We did notice more hikers than the previous week. We also noted some Forest Service Volunteers heading up the trail while others set up at the trailhead to check permits.

As we started to hike a troop of Boy Scouts joined us at the trailhead. The Forest Service volunteer asked who had the permit and the lead boys pointed back to the leader, she told the boys to wait and then asked me for our permit. I said, "Do I need a permit, in all my years of climbing the I've never once seen a ranger on the rock." In return the the volunteer asked me "Are you a rock climber?". My reply as I shook all the gear on my bandoliers "What gave me away?". She then said something to the effect of "Get out of here smarta**". We didn't need to be told twice and off we went.

At this time I'd like to introduce you more to Roy. He is normally a very reasonable person, doesn't take unnecessary risks and is a moderating influence. Of course that is normally, by associating with me we know that there is another Roy trapped inside and today was the day that "Go for it Roy" decided to make and appearance. As we hiked down to the stream crossing, he made good on his previous threat from the week before to lead the way across the creek. Thank goodness I had the video camera ready and was able to catch it in all of the excitement and glory. We then proceeded to make the hike up to Tahquitz Rock in about the same area as the previous week. I noticed that while we were still starved for oxygen, we were able to make the hundred yards up the talus slope with only about a half dozen rest stops. We're cruzin now!

On the approach

As we approached the base of the cliff, Roy's earlier enthusiasm was weighing heavily on my mind. We have been contenting ourselves with easy climbs of late and maybe we are getting into a rut. Perhaps we need to step it up to a higher level. But, if we do, will we be committing ourselves to something we won't be able to accomplish? At this same time, in the back of my mind I was wondering, all the complaining I've directed at Roy about not leading me up difficult climbs for the past several months, is it possible that it has started to sink in. No, I laughed to myself, that's not possible and quickly banished the thought. But I noticed with all this thinking combined with the lack of oxygen to the brain had caused me to veer off to the east and we found ourselves several hundred feet to the east of the Larks. The snow at the base of the cliff had significantly melted in past week causing Roy to think we were in another location. It proved to be a good excuse to take another rest stop while I tried to set him straight. I wasn't able to make my point to my satisfaction and  I think Roy was ignoring me, so we continued up a gully towards one of the best moderate crack climbs in the area, El Whampo.

El Whampo has a rating of 5.7 and consists of a full pitch of perfect hand jams, which makes it a classic. Since this is certainly more difficult than our recent climbs, I felt no guilt that it is a shorter climb. The length is reduced by the amount of scrambling that one can do to get to the rope-up start. As we strained, gasped and grunted our way up to where the "climbing" starts, I detected some disgust in Roy's voice when he told me that I should get a pair of approach shoes like he has. You know the kind, fancy sticky climbing shoe rubber on comfortable hiking shoes. I think he was just bragging.

I'm getting dressed to play

We finally reached a nice ledge where we could rope up. We put on our harnesses, climbing shoes, helmets and then Roy tied on the rope and announced that he was going to lead the first pitch. Something about guilt and absolution. I of course pretended to try to talk him out of it while I pushed over to the first crack. He then started up and soon reached a nice diagonal ledge that can be walked up to a little below the belay at the end of the pitch. I noticed he was stopped and looking a far more difficult route that would go straight up. I asked him "What's wrong with the ledge?" and he said that he thought it was too easy and we weren't supposed to do it. I made some comment that conveyed my philosophy on his current logic and he went on up the ledge. Soon he was at the belay and brought me up.

Roy leading the first pitch

This meant that it was my turn to take the lead. I was joking as I started out onto the face, traversing to the start of the hand crack pitch, but I don't think I was able to hide my apprehension regarding the moves up ahead. Now it was time to test my ability to climb at the next level after skating on the easy stuff for so long. I arrived at the crack and my heart sunk. It looked much harder than I remembered. I had hoped to be the "cool" leader who jumped right up on the crack without putting in protection until I had climbed high enough to give reasonable protection to Roy as he traversed from the belay to the crack. I buckled to my nerves and put in a couple pieces of protection. As I finally went for the move, after much hemming and hawing I made a comment to Roy that he was, how can I politely say this, shall we say in a disadvantaged situation. I then headed up the crack with the climbing soon as wonderful as I had remembered from the past.

Second pitch

All thoughts of the first crux starting the cracks were gone from my mind and I was enjoying the quality of the climb, perfect rock, great holds, solid protection and excellent rests. It doesn't get much better. Soon I was at the top of the pitch, on a nice large ledge with beautiful views. I brought Roy up and he again wanted to lead. I sent him up, with him repeatedly wanting to know which way I went when I did the climb in the past. I tried to discourage him from taking that route and tried to get him to go onto some very easy ground. He stayed the course and we were glad he did. The pitch turned out to be easy face climbing on large holds with thin cracks for protection. Great easy exposure. Roy set up his belay at the summit overhangs, near where we had finished the East Lark the week before.

Self portrait from end of second pitch

I took the rack of gear and went directly up to the overhang above. I looked over the possible route and decided that I would want more protection before I was willing to try that section. Without good protection, if the leader falls off of overhanging rock, he will hit the rock or ground below, being softer than the rock, the climber has a high probability of getting injured. I climb for lots of reasons, but getting hurt isn't one of them, so I traversed along the base of the overhang looking for good place to go over. The next possibility looked like easier climbing, but with even less protection, so I kept going. By this time I thought I would just be going over to a section that would be so easy that it'd be boring. I was wrong. I found another weakness in the rock and found I could get in some protection. I wasn't real happy with combination of factors so I kept trying to find different ways to place my protection and different angles of attack. After what seemed like 20 minutes, 2 hours to Roy, I finally found a sequence that allowed me to make the moves, put in three pieces of protection (at least one of them had to be good) and finish the pitch. Roy again led the next section and we soon found ourselves on the top.

Looking down on Humber Park with full zoom

While I had worried about trying a harder climb, we were able to do the climb and we had a great time in the process. The air quality was better than the week before and so was  the temperature, in fact, in the shade with the wind blowing, we were chilly.

El Whampo is beneath the dead tree on top

We soon hiked back down to the car, talked to another Forest Service volunteer who asked us if we had seen the climbers, they had a bunch of carabieners on them. Roy tried the logical approach in explaining who we were and what we had been doing. I quickly saw this was going no where and just said, "That was us." which she understood.

Safely back at the car

It was another good day on the rocks, with the best views.

Out on a Lark

Well, yesterday I was able to get outside for some good wholesome exercise - rockclimbing. With the rapid approach of summer and the heat already here, we went to Idyllwild. We left Palm Springs a little after 7 am and stopped in Banning for breakfast at Gramma's Country Kitchen, what they may lack in haute cuisine they make up for in volume. We were fortified for a full day of climbing, without lunch, when we hit the road again. The drive up Highway 243 from Banning to Idyllwild  had promised to be uneventful, as the hills were already brown. But to my surprise there were quite a few flowers, especially in the burned areas. After we reached the timber, we saw that efforts are continuing to thin out the forest from the devastating effects of Pine Bark Beatles and incorporating fire protection. Soon we were stopping at the Ranger station.

Since the elevation of Idyllwild is approximately 5,300 feet in town, and climbing elevations are closer to 7,000 feet, it should be about 20 degrees cooler than the low desert. Even with the coolness from the elevation, we knew that conditions would be warm and so decided to look for the coolest location possible. There are two main rock formations that people climb, Tahquitz or Lily Rock and Suicide Rock. Suicide is the more popular formation, the climbs are shorter, the approach easier and the overall rock quality is just slightly better. Most of Suicide Rock faces east and south, but there is a small area to the northeast that has plenty of shade, even on the hottest days. This is of course no secret to regulars and is very crowded in warmer weather. Tahquitz, almost a 1,000 feet tall, has major faces on both the north and northeast, with climbs that are in the shade during all but the longest days of the year. 

We opted for climbing on one of the northern faces of Tahquitz Rock, but didn't commit to a particular route until we had a chance to look over conditions. While hiking up to the rock, we spotted another pair of climbers about 100 yards ahead of us. Once we reached the base of the rock, we found them looking over the possible climbs. I asked them what climb they planned on doing and they answered that they were undecided. I asked them what type of climb they wanted to do and they said they were not very familiar with the area and wanted to do something long, fun and easy. I told them that since they were going to get acquainted with the rock, they should climb the White Maiden's Walkaway. This is a fantastic route, one of the longest on the rock and it has some of best rock you could ask for. While it's easy and often done by beginners (it was my first real climb), it has plenty of variations to keep it interesting for more experienced climbers. They decided to take our advice and we pointed them toward the start of the climb. The north face had several parties climbing on it, so we went back to the northeast face for some more solitude.

Roy on the approach

Looking up at the northeast face from the bottom of the talus slope

We didn't have much deciding to do once we were back at the northeast face. There is still a large snow patch along the base, so the only climb that met our criteria was the East Lark. We were looking for a climb that was sort of long, fun and easy. East Lark was the best option in the immediate area. As we started to get ready, two more climbers showed up and asked what we were planning to climb. I replied the East Lark and asked what they planned on climbing. They said whatever we weren't, so with us planning to climb East Lark, they would be climbing Hard Lark. I was pleased since it would give us the chance to take some good pictures of them climbing next to us. Most climbing pictures are either looking up or down at the climbers, but seldom to the side. We made some small talk and found out that they were up in Idyllwild climbing for the weekend and hailed from San Diego. Since they were waiting for us, we started up the route and I tried to quickly climb up out of their way. I climbed a half pitch or rope length and set up the belay anchors to bring up Roy. We then continued up a series of vertical cracks and soon we had climbed several pitches.

We were pleased that the sun, which we didn't escape, didn't prove too hostile and with the breezes, the weather was almost perfect. The biggest problem was the altitude. Since we live at just about sea level, me slightly above and Roy slightly below, climbing at about 7,000 feet left us gasping, of course so did the hike to the rock from the parking lot. It seemed we never did recover. This obvious lack of physical conditioning, we'll just pass off on how fast we were climbing. We were moving so fast we never caught our breath? Thought I'd try... .

We noticed that our friends from San Diego traversed off the Larks on their second pitch and ended up on a climb called the Uneventful. I think it may have been misnamed for them, since they had planned on a short day and the last time we saw them, while hiking back to the car, they were about 3/4 of the way to the top. That meant they had several more hours till they would be back at the car. Oh, sorry to ruin the ending, but yes we survived.

The climbing was fun and towards the top we decided to take a variation to the normal finish and do a direct route over the summit overhangs. The overhangs were exciting but very solid and really enjoyable. We found ourselves on top of the climb around 2pm. We had climbed 6 pitches or about 700 vertical feet. Of course, once you reach the top, you have to return to the bottom. This can be done very quickly once, or the slow way, which can be done over and over again. So far I've been sticking with the slow way.

I'm at the belay just below the overhangs

We decided to go down the northeast gully for our descent, even though we had been told at the Ranger station that there was quite a bit of snow. We found very little snow in the gully, but we did see signs of considerable snow earlier in the winter. We noticed a number of trees that had been broken by a major avalanche. Other signs were all the brush filled with debris and bent downhill, major logs moved downhill from where they had been for years, and debris all over from broken branches, brush, dirt and rocks. It must have been very impressive to watch the slide. We made it back to the car by 2:30, a round trip of about 5 hours for the hike in, climb and hike out. That is pretty good for our first climb at altitude of the season.

A last look at Tahquitz Rock on the way home

On the drive back home we stopped at Bay Tree Spring to see why it appeared to be closed. The springs have been a popular stopping point for Southern Californians for many years and many swear that the water is the best anywhere. We normally see the parking area full with people filling up all the 5 gallon water bottles that their vehicles will hold. The spring has been blocked off with barricades and flagging tape and a sign in 3 languages gave some explanation. We didn't try the water and we made our way back home to the heat, only 109 according to the car thermometer. And so ended another adventure. At the bottom of the page I have posted some video from the climb. I'm experimenting with different software for post production and due to the inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the editing software and waiting on my not so new computer to process the video, there wasn't much editing done. 

Bay Tree Spring

Closure notice

The beginning of the video mentions a solo climber. This is a reference to free soloing, or climbing without a rope. Other commentary in the video mistakes which pitch we are climbing. There are also some comments that sound rather confused, trying to pick up from a conversation we had while hiking up to the rock. It was based on the famous line, "Do you feel lucky" from Dirty Harry. It entertained us while hiking but fell apart on the rock. The video is shown in chronological sequence.

A Day at Joshua Tree

Yesterday I went on another little adventure. This time it was to Joshua Tree National Park with my buddy Roy. We did a little rock climbing, very little, some bouldering and then went for a hike.

We started out with a quick climb on the Right Ski Track route on Intersection Rock. This climb is fun and not very challenging, great for a warm-up. Of course, the chance to rappel is always fun too. I've attached a short video of Roy rappelling off the climb. It was a windy day so beware of the wind noise in the videos.

One of the other distractions of our day was playing with our small video cameras. We found out too late that the helmet camera was out of memory, so we carried it along for nothing.

After we came down off our largest climb for the day, we played on some boulders. The first is a popular friction climb near Intersection Rock. We decided that due to the difficulty and height of the boulder, we didn't want to go to the top. I've included a video of the foot work on the start of the climb, highlighting the friction footwork required for this type of climbing. 

Bouldering differs from traditional rockclimbing in that it is the climber testing himself against the climb, normally no rope is used, maybe you'll have something or someone to break your fall, but it's considered a very "pure" form of climbing, where you don't have any distractions from things such as equipment. Of course, if you get distracted by the consequences of a fall, you may loose concentration and motivation, which is what happened to us. Some may call it the fear factor and they'd be correct, we got scared of taking a fall and getting injured.

We tried some other boulders and found some that were within our capabilities, so for my last video, I've included one titled the "Big boulder", don't worry, only my pride was hurt during the fall at the beginning. This boulder is about 20 feet tall and gets easier the higher up you go.

By this time it was about noon and getting warm, so we decided it was getting too hot to climb and we decided to go hiking. I am a dedicated fan of Hal Summer's HIKE EVERY DAY

and he recently hiked in Joshua Tree to a location called Samuelson's Rocks. 

What made the hike interesting was that the only information I had was from Hal's blog. He took the hike on April 27 if you'd like to read his story about the rocks. I should have done some more research and reading about the location, but I tend to like to wander in the wilderness, as Hal did on his first attempt. 

My partner on the hike, Roy is normally a good sport for my off the wall ideas, but this one pushed his tolerance to the limit. We started off from Quail Springs parking area and started walking to where I guessed the rocks would be located. We made a large circular hike along the base of the mountains and saw some potential hikes to go back and explore. We found the pump house and remains of an old homestead. After several hours of hiking, getting low on water and becoming discouraged, we found the site.

We spend about 20 to 30 minutes combing the site, not too throughly because we found 5 of the inscribed rocks and I understand that there are 8, so I guess I'll have to go back. There were still some beautiful flowers, but they are going fast.

The hike back was a real grind, I always know it's bad when Roy gives me his keys, I of course did the decent thing and told him that he's been a great friend all these years and that I would send help for him as soon as I was recovered. I'm not sure he appreciated the deep heartfelt emotion I was pouring out and he stepped up his pace and arrived back at the same time as me. You can see him smile that he made it back alive. Elapsed hike time, 4 hours.

We opened up the ice chest and had cold drinks and juicy oranges, that enabled us to recover enough to head back to town. Roy then forced me to drink an icy frappuccino, I felt so weak to have given in so easily. I'll try to be stronger next time. Note to self, if it's too hot to climb, it's probably too hot to hike.

Just a little footnote to my hike up the Skyline. I heard it called the Cactus to Clouds trail on Wednesday. The reason I heard that name was because a hiker was in trouble on the trail, about 1.5 to 2 hours up from what I guess. Due to the nature of the hiker's medical condition, CALFIRE Helicopter 301 from Hemet Ryan Airfield flew over and took the hiker from the mountainside directly to Desert Regional Medical Center.